LSU Football Recruiting Speedbump?
By Scotty Nola
If you follow LSU football recruiting year round as I do then you know the last couple of weeks have been a mixed bag in the news department. LSU picked up a new commit from Andraez “Greedy” Williams, beating out Texas A&M and Ole Miss, among others.
LSU also lost out on two very high profile Defensive Linemen from Texas, Ed Oliver and Kendell Jones. Oliver stung in particular because he has Louisiana connections and LSU was thought to be his front runner.
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With a little more bad news than good it would be easy to think LSU Football Recruiting is in a bit of a rough patch.
I wouldn’t spend too much time frowning right now though, because this years recruiting cycle could be as strong in the home stretch as the class that brought in world class talent’s Leonard Fournette Jamal Adams and Malachi Dupre.
First off, the bad news isn’t that bad.
While Ed Oliver surprised everyone by committing to Houston his recruitment is far from over, and LSU will still be the frontrunner if he decides to reopen the process. Losing Kendell Jones to Alabama burned everyone a bit, because losing anything to Alabama is no fun, but honestly he was never LSU’s recruit to lose.
He likes our program but he is built to play nose tackle in the NFL and Bama runs a 3-4 defense. That pretty much seals the deal right there.
There is still plenty of good news for LSU fans too, and it starts on the defensive line. 5 Star DT Rashard Lawrence is widely expected to pick LSU (over Bama), as is Glen Logan of Destrehan. LSU is also very much in the mix for Stephon Taylor.
This on top of the commitment of DT Edwin Alexander, one of the top players in the country. 2016 can be one of LSU’s best Defensive Line classes in years, and that is before we consider that Ed Orgeron has LSU on the short list for several other prominent DT and pass rushing recruits.
There are plenty of talented players looking at LSU at other positions as well, enough that recruiting experts are starting to predict LSU as the likely number one class in 2016. And 2017.
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It isn’t too early to talk 2017, and LSU commit Dylan Moses is an early favorite for #1 recruit in the country for that class. LSU is in the running for enough of the top recruits next year that back to back #1 classes is a distinct possibility.
The South Florida pipeline that produced recruits like Patrick Peterson and Rashard Robinson looks to be active over the next 2 recruiting cycles, as does the Houston area.
Virtually every top recruit in Louisiana the next 2 years is a Tigers lock already or strongly considering LSU. Feleipe Franks is the player LSU coaches are hoping will end the QB drought, and early reports have him as a Marcus Mariota type athlete.
LSU recruiting right now is in the best position it’s been in since Les Miles took over as head coach. He has the best group of recruiters in the country. Corey Raymond, Frank Wilson, Ed Orgeron and Jeff Grimes can all claim to be the top recruiter at their position in the country.
The current group of freshmen is loaded, and even if LSU doesn’t pull off the back to back #1 feat in 2016 and 2017 they are in line to be at worst a top 5 class in both of those years.
This is a great time to be an LSU fan, and it’s only getting better from here on out…..